Volume 15, Number 10 · December 3, 1970
Though He Slay Me…
By Alfred Kazin
Mr. Sammler's Planet
by Saul Bellow
Viking, 313 pp., $6.95
The great thing that some Jewish writers have—sometimes the only thing they have—is coming up against the cumulative, unendingly extreme, anomalous, 'absurd' experience of being Jews. What has happened to 'Jews,' not just certain Jews, is so terrible and 'unbelievable' that again and again with Jewish writers the thing to notice is this often innocent contact with the inexpressible that for many Jews is their only recognition of the supernatural. There is that touch of something 'unnatural,' not to be understood in and through history alone, positively magical and awesome in its concentrated maleficence. This can be—is—often too much for ordinary intelligence. It is often too much for those many young Jews today who prefer not to absorb the fact that between 1942 and 1945 a million Jewish children were done to death for reasons unclear also to many of their murderers.
Review, 1791 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |